Ainsworth's Strange Situation Flashcards
Who dis Mary lady?
Ainsworth was interested in exploring differences in attachments of infants
Developed structured controlled observation known as ‘strange situation’ to investigate them
What is the strange situation?
Is a technique that places infant in different situations in order to research quality of attachment to caregiver
Procedure is series of 8 episodes, mainly lasting 3 mins each, provided Ainsworth with means of looking at 5 characteristics
What are the 5 characteristics Ainsworth looked at in the strange situation
Stranger anxiety
Separation anxiety
Proximity seeking behaviour
Exploration from secure base
Response to reunion
What is an acronym to remembering these characteristics
Sometimes
All
Siblings
Are
Prepared
So
Before
Elishka
Fries
Sammy
Before
Rachel
Torments
Rallies
Ok thats rlly bad so I’m willing to compromise w this one <3
What is proximity seeking
Infant w good attachment will stay close to caregiver
What is exploration and secure base behaviour
Good attachment enables a child to feel confident to explore
What is stranger anxiety
Sign of attachment is to show anxiety when a strange approaches
pretty self-explanatory if u ask me but ok
What is separation anxiety
Sign of attachment is to protest at separation from caregiver
again, i aint talkin to idiyats here
What is response to reunion
How child reacts to being reunited with caregiver
at this point these flashcards r useless
How did they collect data in the strange situation?
Group of observers recorded what infant was doing every 15 secs
Observer notes down which of behaviours is displayed and scores its intensity on scale of 1-7
What is secure attachment?
Most desirable attachment type
Associated with psychologically healthy outcomes
In strange situation, is shown by moderate stranger and separation anxiety and ease of comfort at reunion
What is insecure-avoidant attachment?
Low anxiety but weak attachment
In strange situation is shown by low stranger and separation anxiety and little response to reunion - avoidance of caregiver
das not good ig
What is insecure-resistant attachment?
Strong attachment and high anxiety
In strange situation, shown by high levels of stranger and separation anxiety and by resistance to be comforted at reunion
Why is support for validity a +ve evaluation for Ainsworth’s strange situation?
Attachment type is strongly predictive for later development
Babies assessed as secure tend to have better outcomes, e.g.
-School success
-Success in romantic relationships and friendships in adulthood
ha…could never be us…um…anyways
Insecure-resistant is associated w the worst outcomes including
-Bullying in later childhood = Kokkinos 2007…das a fun name…maybe im the bully?!
-Adult mental health problems = Ward et al 2006
How is good reliability a +ve evaluation for this girlie and her peculiar circumstance
Showed very food inter-rated reliability
Bick et al 2012 = looked at inter-rater reliability in team of trained situation observers and found agreement on attachment types for 94% of tested babies
Why is ethnocentrism a -ve evaluation for all dis
Is the tendency to believe that one’s ethnic or cultural group is centrally important, and all others are measured in relation to one’s own
Was the strange situation culture-bound?
Yes
Tis a -ve evalutation
yes…ANOTHER ONE, HIT IT DJ KHALED
Takahashi 1990 = noted test doesn’t rlly work in Japan cos Japanese milfs are so rarely separated from babies that we would expect there are very high levels of separation anxiety
And in reunion stage these mums rushed to baby and scooped them up, meaning child’s responses was hard to observe
how is that AINSWORTH’S FAULT?!
What does the strange situation even measure?! - thats a -ve evaluation btw not just me being difficult <3
Is attachment the main influence on anxiety as Ainsworth assumed?
Kagan 1982 = suggested that temperament, the genetically influenced personality of child, is most important influence on behaviour in this situation
Temperament could be a confounding variable
How is “there is at least one more attachment type” a -ve evaluation?
Main and Solomon 1986 - pointed out that minority of children display atypical attachments that do not fall within types A, B or C behaviour
Known as disorganised attachment
Disorganised kids (e.g. Avani Bains and Elishka Rassapour) display an odd mix of resistant and avoidant behaviours
